Research reveals

CAN'T MAKE YOUR TEEN EAT LESS SALT? GO BANANAS

Give your teens more bananas if you have trouble trying to make them reduce their salt intake.

The potassium in the fruit appears to protect teenagers from high blood pressure in adulthood, a new study found.

The research by Boston University tracked the eating habits and blood pressure of 2,185 girls aged nine and 10 for up to 10 years.

It found that while dietary advice has long focused on reducing salt consumption, sodium intake has no long-term effect on the girls' blood pressure.

But they found that girls whose diets were high in potassium throughout adolescence had lower blood pressure than those who ate less potassium-rich food.

But if your teen is sick of just eating bananas, don't fret.

There are many teenager-friendly foods that are a good source of potassium, including raisins, baked potato or potato skins, guacamole from one avocado and a serving of low-fat yogurt. Kiwi, nectarine, papayas and even dried coconut all have good amounts of potassium.

CANT GET YOUR KIDS TO EAT? STICK ON A SMILEY

Getting kids to eat nutritious meals is quite challenging.

But researchers in the US have succeeded in doing so by labelling healthy foods with smiley faces and offering small prizes for nutritious items.

In a two-phase trial among children in kindergarten through sixth-grade at a school in Cincinnati, the scientists found that with smiley faces on the packaging, purchases of plain milk, for example, increased from 7.4 per cent to 48 per cent.

Meanwhile, sales of chocolate milk, that did not have the sticker, dropped from 86.5 per cent to 44.6 per cent.

Mothers, you may want to try this to get the kiddies to eat their greens.

ATTACKED BY MOZZIES? BLAME IT ON BODY SMELL

It is not because your blood is sweet or that you have a higher body temperature that you attract mosquitoes. It is all about how you smell.

Scientists have found that the likelihood of you getting bitten by mosquitoes boils down to the genes that control your body odour.

In their study carried out on twins, researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine found that identical twins have similar levels of attractiveness, suggesting that genetic factors were at play.

Some 20 non-identical and 20 identical pairs of twins were enlisted for the pilot study.

juditht@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on May 03, 2015.
Get The New Paper for more stories.